Paul DesRoches: Manage by Reality | The Last Person Who Knows

Paul DesRoches isn’t against numbers. He’s against running a company from a beach chair. Paul spent eight years in the operations and project trenches at MOSS Building and Design in Northern Virginia before becoming CEO in January 2020, two months before COVID hit. In this conversation, he talks about leading through that moment, why he thinks as hard about the whole remodeling industry as his own company, and what it takes to be caring and demanding, tech-forward and high touch, all at once. In this episode: What Paul thought the CEO job would be, and what he learned once he had it The COVID task forces, including one code-named Benjamin Why a $100,000 mistake might be a $100,000 training exercise What it would take to change how homeowners see remodelers How a project leader with no tech background built an AI tool that took - a bottleneck off Paul’s desk The worst business advice Paul ever got Guest: Paul DesRoches, CEO, MOSS Building & Design, Renolution Chapters 0:00 Cold open and introduction 2:30 What the CEO job turned out to be 5:30 Developing the whole person 10:45 The $100,000 training exercise 14:00 January 2020, then COVID 19:00 Adele and keeping it light 20:45 What COVID left behind 25:45 What scale means to Paul 34:00 The trust problem 40:15 MOSS five years from now 42:00 Paul's future role 44:45 What AI means for the industry 52:30 Advice for AI skeptics 56:00 AI chips and the existence of God 58:30 A new way to see a project 1:01:45 The bottleneck question 1:06:15 Matt's permit tool 1:09:00 The worst business advice The Last Person Who Knows is hosted by Jeremy Nulik and produced by Readybuild, the operating intelligence of the design-build industry. Listen everywhere you get podcasts, and if this was your story, tell me about it at thelastpersonwhoknows.com.